What Happened Next
by Coke Cam
Summary: Bedtime in the Rizzoli-Isles household means storytime on the couch, but Jane's version of how she fell in love with Maura is missing a few key details not suitable for younger audiences… (Rizzles family, non-graphic M-moment but we'll go with a T-rating.)


A/N: From an anon prompt asking for something completely different regarding your OTP making love and some hair pulling—sincere thanks to sideadde for sacrificing a Friday afternoon to sort this out and to JiminyRizzles for posting the fantastic cover image.

* * *

"Alexa Rizzoli-Isles, you have T-minus 10 seconds to reach the launch pad! _T-minus 9_, _T-minus 8_..."

"Mama, what's T?"

"It's something your Mommy, _T- minus 7_, tries to make me drink, _T minus 6_, but it's not working, _T minus 5.._."

Jane hadn't missed a beat as her voice rose just a notch, as if she knew exactly how loudly she needed to speak to be heard in the kitchen from where she sat on the couch in the living room. Maura couldn't help smiling as she had just now put on the kettle for her evening cup of herbal tea. There was only one cup set out though—after nearly ten years together, she had finally accepted the immutable truth that Jane was a coffee person and the more powerful the better.

"I need the caffeine to keep up with you," Jane had said earnestly when Maura had tried to replace her favorite basic beans with a half-caff mix. The resulting grumpiness, headaches, and disinterest in sex had quickly convinced Maura of her mistake.

"_T-minus 4, T-minus 3_, I don't seeeee..." Jane let out a muffled grunt which could only mean that Alexa had finally propelled herself onto the couch for the start of their bedtime ritual.

"I'm here, Mama!"

"Yeah, got that, sport." Given the slight shift in Jane's tone, Maura suspected she had caught a tiny sharp elbow to the nose as Alexa clambered over her. Jane was actually proud that her own daughter had caused her more injuries than all the felons she had arrested in the last seven years put together. Maura simply sighed and stocked more band-aids in anticipation of puberty.

"Storytime, storytime!"

Maura knew what would come next in the familiar routine. Jane would ask which story she wanted first, then protest and groan over the choices and finally allow herself to be convinced.

From the time Alexa was a newborn, they had read to her together each night, but as she grew older it became apparent that she preferred Jane's versions, enriched with different voices, exaggerated expressions and unexpected changes to familiar plots.

"_That's not right, Mama," Alexa had said severely._

_"What? Of course it is. Sleeping Beauty's best friend went to Star-blah and brought her a triple espresso—problem solved!"_

Maura hadn't minded because it left her free to sit in the rocking chair in the corner of Alexa's room while Jane sat on the bed, lanky legs crossed, and read to the little girl until her eyelids began to flutter just as Maura's heart did as she watched.

There was no question that Alexa was Jane's daughter, biologically, psychologically and spiritually. Jane was always the one who insisted nurture meant as much as nature, if not more, and that Maura would have just as much influence which was good for them because who wanted a kid like her? And Maura would smile, kiss her, and say that she did—she wanted a little girl just like Jane, with her dark eyes, wild hair, fierce heart, and unstoppable spirit. That was exactly what she had gotten, as if Jane had broken off a piece of herself and handed it to Maura.

"OK," Jane groaned from the couch, "what do you want tonight, punkin?"

"Let...me...think..." Alexa drawled the words out with exaggerated care. She would do anything to prolong storytime, as shameless as Jane had been as a girl according to Angela.

Maura walked out of the kitchen with her tea and pulled out a chair from the dining room table so she could sit quietly and watch the two people she loved the most. Work had been busy for the last few days and they had been pulled into separate cases which left them out of sync and not able to see each other during the day. Then for two nights running, Jane had been on a stakeout which had paid off with an arrest, but she'd had to miss Alexa's bedtime both nights. Privately, Maura thought Jane more upset than their daughter about that.

With a comp day off now in exchange, Jane had wheedled a last minute spot as a chaperone on Alexa's field trip today to the aquarium, which Maura had suggested was because she didn't trust the other parents to know what to do in a hostage situation.

"I don't know," Jane had said with a respectful grimace. "Those Junior League types are pretty tough, and Madison Sinclair? I think she's the ringleader."

Thankfully, the field trip concluded with no hostage emergencies, and Jane had stopped on the way home to pick up dinner so Maura could stay late to finish an autopsy and not need to cook. She had come through the door with a sack of El Pelon burritos under one arm and Alexa under the other. Giggling wildly, the girl was clutching her new stuffed animal, Otto the otter, as Jane spun around, calling out, "Maur, do you see Alexa? I can't find her? I think I lost her at the aquarium! I think the otters took her!"

Dinner had been a constant stream of chatter and excited laughter as the two recounted the day in tag-team fashion while Maura listened quietly and felt her heart grow so warm that she actually felt her skin begin to tingle. Alexa had tried to help carry the dishes and narrowly avoided shattering her plate ("That's why you buy 'em at IKEA," Jane hissed), and was finally sent to change into her pajamas for bed so the table could be safely cleared.

Jane had waited downstairs for Alexa, still wearing jeans, a BPD t-shirt and the black leather jacket that Maura had bought for her as a Valentine's present their first year as a couple. For the longest time Maura had suspected that the sight of Jane Rizzoli in jeans and a black leather jacket would take her breath away, and it still did.

"Your favorite story?" Jane was gasping in mock horror. "I thought they were all your favorites? You know the rules—no stories until you've done _everything_ for bedtime. Did you put your backpack away? Did you set out your clothes for tomorrow? Both socks? Did you scrape your fangs? Lemme see."

Alexa bared her glistening baby teeth up at her mother, who pulled the little girl into her lap.

"All right, your favorite, huh? Let's see, is that _The Hungry Caterpillar_?"

"No, that's an Easy Reader," Alexa informed her. "I want your special story."

"_Crime and Punishment_?"

"Mama!"

"OK, OK," Jane groaned, "a special story."

"_Your_ special story." Alexa was latched against her, very much like a young chimpanzee and Maura ruefully thought that they would have a hard time untangling her from Jane tonight. "Tell me your story, it's my favorite."

"_My_ story? Gee, I'm pretty boring."

"Maamaaa!"

Maura pursed her lips as she caught Jane grinning at her from over the top of Alexa's head. She knew just how far to string the little girl's patience before giving in.

"Is this the story of how I saved your Uncle Frankie from marrying his evil ex-girlfriend Theresa?"

"No, no! The story of how you met Mommy!"

Jane's eyebrows shot up. "That story? It's really short and boring—we met at work, the end. How about the story of how Jo Friday caught the Thanksgiving Thief?"

For just a moment Alexa wavered as her bottom lip protruded by a few centimeters. She loved any of the stories in the Jo Friday canon, but especially the Thanksgiving Thief. Her eyes darted down and over to where the little dog was napping on her fleece bed by the fire.

"Nope," Alexa decided with a sharp nod. "Tell me about you and Mommy."

"OK." Jane let out a gusting sigh. "The story of how I met your mother."

_One night, many, many, many, many, many, many years ago, I had a dream. I was at the park with Jo Friday and the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day with butterflies and little birds and a baby unicorn and..._

"Mama, there's no such thing as unicorns."

"Yes, there is, baby. Your Mommy's one."

"That's not..."

"Sssshh, it's my dream and I'm telling you what I saw."

_In my dream, we went walking in the park and talked to all the little animals, and then we stopped to the lake in the middle and sat down on a bench and watched the otters play in the water and hold hands._

"Mama, otters don't hold hands."

"Yes, they do. I saw it on YouTube. Y'know, it sounds like you don't want this story."

"I do! I'll be good, what happened next?"

_As I was sitting on the bench, Jo Friday curled up in the sun and we both closed our eyes. It was so wonderful that I couldn't imagine anything better. I was so happy and peaceful that I went to sleep and...  
_  
"Mama. You can't go to sleep when you're already asleep!"

"Punkin, whose story is this?"

"It's yours," Alexa said meekly. "But you should know it's shientifically inaccurate. Then what happened next?"

_Then I smelled something absolutely amazing, like cinnamon and sandalwood and Christmas and puppies and everything wonderful all rolled up in one._

_I was still dozing on the bench but the smell was getting stronger, and then I felt someone holding my hand and they wanted me to stand up. They were hugging me and their arms felt so good around me as we stood in the sunlight. I'd just thought I knew what happy was before. Now my heart was beating so fast and it was the best hug in the whole world._

"Mama, you give the best hugs."

"Awww, thanks, sweetie. Your Mommy taught me."

"What happened next?"

_I didn't think my heart could keep beating so fast but I never wanted the hug to ever end, not for the rest of my life. So I kept my eyes shut and I locked my arms and I told myself "Don't wake up, don't wake up."_

_And then I felt something tugging on my hair. I kept my eyes closed tight and I wouldn't look up, but I kept feeling that little tug, over and over, and then I heard a voice whisper..._

"Wake up!" Alexa said in time with her mother.

Jane grinned and tickled the girl lightly so she squirmed and laughed. "I think you know this story better than I do. You don't need me to tell you what happened next."

"Tell me, please, please?" Alexa begged. "Tell me how you went to work an-and..." She stopped herself and grew very still and small, as if trying to cover the fact that she'd admitted she already knew how the story went.  
"Well, what happened next is I woke up, but for real, in the real world, but I wasn't in the special park anymore. I was back home in my cold bed and I was really sad because the dream was over and I was alone. I didn't have anyone to hug."

"But _then_ what happened?"

"Theennn," Jane drawled, "like I've told you five hundred and eighty three times before, I went to work. And while I was at work I had to go all the way down, down, down the elevator to the lab to get some help because _someone_ in the lab couldn't make up her mind about the chemical composition of the residue we found on the victim's shoe. So while I was waiting and waiting and waiting for_ever_, I suddenly smelled the most amazing smell, just like in my dream."

Alexa was nodding ever more forcefully along in cadence with Jane's words. "And then?"

"And then I looked up and your Mommy was standing there. We had been friends for years, but that was when I realized the smell was her perfume, the one she wears for special occasions. I looked at her and she looked at me and it was like everything in the whole world finally made sense, and that's when I woke up and realized that she was the only one I ever wanted to hug."

"And did you hug her?" Alexa's eyes were wide as she clutched Otto in a death grip.

Jane grinned and tweaked her nose. "I sure did. I hugged her and I hugged her and I told her I was never letting her go unless she went out on a date with me. She said she had some experiment waiting and she had to go turn it off, so she had to say yes or she'd lose her job!"

"Mommy's the Chief Medical Examiner of the Commonwealfuff Mas'chusetts," Alexa said solemnly.

"You better believe it, sport." Jane stood in a single fluid motion, hoisting Alexa up in the air as the girl wrapped her long skinny legs around Jane's equally thin waist. "And _that_ is the story of how I fell in love with your mother, except I was already in love with her all long. Now, are you ready for bedtime blast-off? Did you put on your seat belt, Astronaut Alexa? Did you fasten your helmet? Did you drink your Tang? Did you kiss your butt good-bye?"

The girl nodded and giggled to each question as Jane slowly began to crouch and gather herself.

"T-minus five, T-minus four, T-minus three..." They chanted together until they reached _one_. Jane sprang forward, shot from the cannon of their joint imaginations, and bounded up the stairs with Alexa clinging to her. The sound of their laughter rolled back down the stairs, filling the room, the house, and every crevice of Maura's heart.

Twenty minutes and several more stories later, Jane came back down the stairs with a weary but triumphant grin. She gave a thumbs up as she flopped back onto the sofa and let her head tilt back against the cushions.

"She's down for the count."

Maura had finished her tea and crossed over to the couch, pulling her legs up beneath her as she sat next to Jane. "That was a very, very creative bedtime story." She smiled at Jane who had put on an expression of wounded bewilderment. "As I recall, you skipped several very key parts."

Jane's eyebrows shot up, mortified. "She's _seven_," she hissed.

Maura laid one arm along the back of the sofa, her fingers brushing Jane's shoulder. "I just think that parents should always strive to be honest with their children."

"Yeah, well, I didn't lie. I just left out a few things.

"Maybe when she's older."

Jane began to sputter and flush. "Yeah, like when I'm dead! And she's gonna be a nun anyway, so no, she doesn't need to know all that."

Maura couldn't help chuckling now. For all that Det. Rizzoli-Isles was tough, focused and confident at work, it was incredibly easy to fluster her where their daughter was involved. Maura thought she shouldn't enjoy doing it so much, but they hadn't had a chance to talk in more than hasty text messages for several days. She craved Jane, her quick wit, her laughter and life. And her touch.

"So why don't you tell me a story too." Maura propped her chin on one hand as she looked up at her wife with lazy, half-lidded eyes..

"What, like The Emperor's New Clothes? You'd like that except...well, there aren't any clothes."

"Actually, that does sound good." Maura pulled her legs around and shifted so she could sit on Jane's lap with her arms looped around her neck. "Tell me a grown-up bedtime story," she coaxed. "Tell me how you _really_ came to your senses."

Jane looked up at her, the faintest smile starting to grow. "I think you remember how it happened."

Maura brushed the hair back from the side of Jane's face so she could lean close and let her lips brush against the exposed ear as she said, "I need you to remind me." As she pulled away she let her teeth graze the soft skin just below Jane's ear, prompting a tremor throughout her wife's body.

"OK, um, y-yeah. Well, I was having a dream, that's true. See, I tell the truth."

"Mmmhmm. What kind of dream?"

Jane wavered a little, glancing up through thick dark eyelashes. "A pretty intense one."

Maura rewarded her honesty with a brief chaste kiss. "What were you doing that was so intense?"

"I was hugging someone. A lot."

Maura shifted on her lap, now straddling Jane with her knees pressing into the couch cushion on either side so they sat face to face.

"I thought you didn't like to hug people," she said lightly. "This must have been a very special hug."

Jane's eyes had drifted closed as she fell into the memory; a smile grew on her lips. "Yeah," she said dreamily. "We were sitting just like this and it was so perfect and soft. We fit just right, and she smelled incredible."

"Oh, this was a _she_?" Maura's left eyebrow arched. "That's a new detail."

"Yeah, it was news to me too," Jane muttered. "I mean, sometimes I used to get dreams like that," she admitted, "but I just told myself they didn't mean anything really."

"Was this when you were in your denial stage?"

"It's not just a river in Egypt," Jane chuckled.

"Very true," Maura agreed. "The Nile runs through eleven countries in Africa actually, from Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, then Burundi to..."

Jane stared at her, utterly deadpan. "I know it's hard to believe, but I wasn't discussing African geography with her at the time."

Maura stopped herself, then smiled and dipped her chin in a way that made Jane's breath stutter. "Well, if you weren't talking, detective, what were you doing?"

"This." Jane's hands slipped up under Maura's shirt and she ran her nails lightly across her back. Maura shivered in her arms, sliding closer to her in a single fluid motion. As their bodies met, Jane buried her face in Maura's hair, then drew them even more tightly together with no space left between. Her hands skimmed down to palm Maura's hips, then traced along her thighs to find the edge of her skirt which was already riding up, higher and higher. Her fingertips slipped up under the hem, exploring territory no less exciting for its familiarity, until...

"Whoa!" Jane yelped.

"A-are you all right?" Maura was short of breath but otherwise felt fine—wonderful, in fact.

"Yeah, but, w-what is this, Underwear Optional Thursday?"

Maura chuckled and smoothed the hair back from Jane's face. "It's after 8 p.m. and our daughter is asleep, so yes."

Jane shook her head vigorously. "No, she's in _bed. _That's different than asleep."

"She's asleep," Maura whispered as she slowly, gently kissed her wife. "Trust me. Every night you were gone, she fell asleep immediately and she's exhausted from today. I'm starting to think you're a bad influence on her. Now—what happened next?"

Jane's pupils had gradually dilated, darkening her eyes even more, as she stared up at Maura,. Her hands were back on Maura's thighs, her thumbs gently stroking. "Show?" she asked huskily. "Or tell?"

Maura smiled again, pulling Jane in for another kiss. "Both—now what happened next?"

Jane's complied with a light, playful growl as she let her hands move higher again, pushing the skirt up above Maura's hips.

"I really was sitting in the park," she murmured, "and there was a lake, but no one else was there, except for her. I was holding her in my lap, like this, and I couldn't stop touching her. Everything felt so good like I was getting something right for the first time ever."

Maura's response was cut short in a soft gasp as Jane's fingers lightly stroked upwards. "A-and...and then?" she managed. It had only been two nights, but she had missed Jane horribly; she needed to be held and loved to make up for every night she'd spent alone and all the ones before they had met as well.

"And then I realized the woman was saying something but I didn't listen." Jane was nuzzling her neck now, gently nipping.

Maura tried to smother a moan. "You never do."

"She was very persistent, just someone else I know." Jane gave her a quick wink just as she shifted her legs, moving her knees further apart without warning. Maura felt her balance shift but Jane slid one arm around the small of her back and holding her safe—safe, but open, vulnerable and aching.

"She told me to look at her," Jane said. Her voice had shifted, an authoritative note creeping in and it made Maura's stomach do one perfect back flip. "I didn't right away, but her hands were in my hair..."

Jane's hand was, at that moment, somewhere completely different but no less appreciated. Maura felt a warm flush beginning to spread up her neck as she slowly sank into the touch...

"...and when I still didn't look up, she pulled my head back so I had to look at her. But her hair was falling in her face and all I could see was one eye—all gold and a little green—and it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." Jane's voice was huskier now, nearly vibrating through her skin. "And then..."

And then Maura's eyes closed as she bit her lip and fell against Jane, fighting to hold back the tremulous cries that came bucking up through her as she finally gave in. Jane was silent except for a reassuring hum as held Maura close, waiting for the trembling to ease. She stroked Maura's hair with one hand, pulling her even closer as she recovered her breath, until Maura let out a satisfied sigh. She had curled her fingers through the waves of Jane's hair falling down across her and gave a small, teasing tug.

"What happened next?" she murmured.

"I heard her say 'Wake up, Jane.'" Jane's voice was soft and sad, but not embarrassed. "When I woke up I was crying, because I was confused and sad and alone. I didn't think anyone would ever love me."

Maura pushed herself up weakly, sitting up enough to kiss Jane's eyelids. "But what happened the next day?"

That coaxed a glimmer of a smile at last. Jane gently smoothed Maura's skirt back down and managed to reach the blanket at the end of the couch without disturbing them. She flipped the end out to unfold it and tucked it around Maura.

"The next day," Jane said, "I tried to go to work but I couldn't concentrate. You sent your evil little minion Susie up to find me since I wasn't answering the phone and she told me I had to go down to the morgue to see something, but the last thing I wanted after that dream was to be alone with another woman. But Korsak and Frost were both in court and you wouldn't take no for an answer."

"I rarely do. So what happened in the morgue?" Maura's fingers had found their way to the hem of Jane's shirt and were slowly inching their way upward.

"You...wow, you really did miss me," Jane chuckled. "I should go on stakeout more often." She took Maura's hand in hers to stop her progress and kissed each fingertip. "I was standing by the door, trying to put as little of me in the room as I could, and you wanted me to look at some stupid microscope slide..."

"Which contained the relevant evidence to convict the killer."

"Yeah, that too, and you wanted me to look at it which I still say was really stupid because it's not like I could testify about it in court and say, 'Yes, Your Honor, the hoobledeegoobeldee firmly establishes the defendant's mitochromatic link to the whatzitcalledagain."

Maura laughed, sudden and delighted. The lingering unease of their separation over the last few days was gone, erased simply by Jane's voice.

"I like to share things with you." Maura's tone had grown lighter and more teasing as she tried to free her hand and return to creeping under Jane's shirt. "What did you do next?"

"I looked in the microscope and I stayed there and kinda zoned out for a minute since I didn't have to look at you while I was looking into it. But then you kept trying to get my attention and you had to shake me by the shoulder to get my attention. When you did that, you caught some of my hair and pulled it, so I shot up and looked at you and you were staring back at me, right into my eyes. It was like you hit me with a laser. I couldn't move."

"Technically, if I'd hit you with a laser you would have been very uncomfortable and trying to get out of the way."

"You looked into my eyes," Jane repeated, her voice dropping to an impossibly low note. "You looked at me and I felt everything I had the night before in my dream—I was on fire, in love, in lust, just one big nerve ending, and suddenly I realized it was you. I was in love with you all along, and the way you were looking back at me said you were too. And you smiled and you said, "Wake up, Jane."

"An' then what happen?"

Maura stiffened at the sound of Alexa's voice coming from just beyond the couch. She kept her eyes closed, hoping against hope that her daughter had just come down the stairs. Instinctively, Jane had tightened her arms, as if there were a threat to protect her from, then relaxed.

"Alexandra, how long have you been out of bed?" This was still her Mama voice, but a good third of it was now detective.

"Just...just now?" she said. "'M sorry, Mama, I was worried."

"Baby, c'mere—are you OK? What's wrong?"

Alexa shuffled around the end of the couch and into view. The girl's white flannel pajamas were patterned with green and yellow elephants that danced in pairs, holding trunks and she had managed to twist the bottoms around backwards, but on her narrow hips it was hard to tell.

"I think Otto ran away." Her expression was flat and serious, as if she'd copied it from an evening news anchor.

"Is that so?" Jane made face that matched in seriousness, then turned to Maura with a conspiratorial whisper. "Are you good? Can you get up?"

Surprisingly, she found that her legs were working again and she checked to be sure her skirt was completely back in place before she slipped onto the cushion next to Jane. She drew the blanket along with her and folded it neatly into her lap.

"C'mere, punkin." Jane held her arms out and Alexa trudged over to her, eyes downcast. "What if I told you that Otto asked me for permission to run back to the aquarium for something and then come right back?"

Alexa's eyes grew round and she looked at Maura who was just as perplexed. "What...what did he forget?"

Jane reached behind one of the throw pillows and drew out Otto, who had gotten lost in the tussle and turbulence before bed. Then with her other hand, she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a matching palm-sized stuffed otter pup.

"Otto!" Alexa cried and crushed him to her chest. "Otto and...and..."

"Actually," Jane said, "I think Otto is a mommy who went back for her baby, so maybe her name is..." She turned to Maura, stuck for a suggestion.

"Oprah!"

Jane's face froze. "Where did she get that from?" she hissed at Maura.

"Well, _Life_ magazine did call her the most influential African-American of her generation."

"Since when...ohhh..." Jane groaned. "My mother. We let her babysit last week when school was out and we couldn't get off."

"Oprah and Otto, Otto and Oprah," Alexa sang happily as she flopped down on the couch between them. She made the otters chase after each other up and down her legs and then across Jane's and up the back of the couch while she made up a disjointed narrative of how Oprah had taken the MBTA across town to rescue her son from the evil aquarium. Maura realized ruefully that even though she had been telling the truth, as always, when she said Alexa had slept soundly the last few nights, tonight would be another story.

And that gave her an idea.

Drawing the blanket off herself, Maura tucked it around Alexa a bit at a time, never making her feel that she was being trapped or confined. Gradually the girl settled, comforted and secure as she played along, tucking the otters in as well.

"Do you think," Maura said, "that Otto and Oprah would like a bedtime story too?"

Alexa nodded vigorously, her long curling hair bouncing in time. "A different one."

Jane had picked up on the cue to re-start the bedtime ritual and moved closer so that she and Maura were cuddling their daughter between them now, helping her begin to calm down for sleep.

"You want a different one, huh? Not a Jo Friday one?"

"Different one," Alexa repeated. Her head was tilting to rest against Maura's shoulder and her fingers were absently stroking her arm. "Mommy, you tell me a story."

For an instant Maura froze, suddenly thrust into the spotlight after so many comfortable years sitting in the audience. But, she reasoned, she knew all of the repertoire by heart and Jane was there to help coach her through if she became stuck.

"All right," she agreed. "Which story do you want to hear differently?"

Alexa shook her head vigorously. "A new story, a new one. Tell me how you met me."

Maura couldn't help laughing at the way her daughter had phrased the request. "How I met you? I've always known you, sweetheart." Alexa was precocious, but they hadn't reached the age yet where she had specific questions about where she had come from, although Maura had prepared and bought several recommended children's books on the topic of in vitro fertilization.

Now Alexa's head shaking had become stern and definite. "No, Mommy, how you met me. Like how you and Mama met—how you knew you loved each other. How did you know you loved me?"

Maura's breath caught then as her mind flashed back to that night seven years before. She understood now what Alexa was really asking but the answer lay within something Maura had never talked about, not even to Jane. After all these years of remaining quietly to one side and letting Jane weave their history through her own wonderfully unorthodox stories, perhaps it was time to make an entry of her own. She had been holding back with typical Isles emotional reserve and keeping a part of herself from her daughter that she deserved to know about—perhaps tonight was finally the right time.

"All right, sweetheart. If you want to know how I fell in love with you, I can tell you that story."

Alexa nodded solemnly, and without breaking eye contact she gathered her stuffed animals and wriggled into Maura's lap. Jane remained quiet, sensitive and alert to the subtle shift in the mood.

"Your Mama and I wanted a family, like your Uncle Tommy has and your Uncle Frankie too, but it wasn't very easy for us. We had to go to lots of doctors but finally we found one who could help us. Then we picked your Mama to carry and protect you until you were ready to be born because she's so good at protecting people."

That was a simplification but Maura could accept it for now. It was taxing enough to phrase these things in ways a child could understand, the way she had learned to over the years. Explaining why it hadn't been possible for her to carry a child, the feelings of failure and incompetence, how Jane had said she would do anything she had to, even leave BPD, to give Maura a baby didn't have any bearing on the story and what followed.

As if on cue, Alexa asked, "What happened next?" Her eyes were solemn now and her lips half-parted as she waited. Maura smiled and gently brushed the tip of her nose. Alexa blinked and then flapped one hand as if to wipe away the touch.

"You know how brave your Mama is and how she works to help people who can't help themselves?"

"And get the bad guys," Alexa added.

Maura nodded. "And get the bad guys. Well, she loves you a hundred times more than anyone else in the world, so she was a hundred times more brave and strong than any other Mama when it was time for you to be born, but you didn't make it very easy."

"I di'n't?" Alexa looked crestfallen but intrigued.

"No, you didn't want to come out and meet us no matter what we did. It went on so long that the doctors were scared that something bad might happen."

Again, not a lie but far less than the whole truth. As she stood by the bedside, holding Jane's hand and following every LaMaze instruction she had ever memorized, she overheard terms like _dystocia_ and _cephalo-pelvic_ _disproportion_ being murmured, and she understood instantly the degree of pain that Jane was struggling to conceal from her.

"What happened next?" Alexa breathed.

"Finally your Mama convinced you it was time and when you came out the first thing you did was scream and scream and scream."

Alexa giggled for a moment and Maura braced herself for the girl to give an imitation of that moment, but sleep was already starting to creep up on her again. She snuggled a little closer, one small hand now pressed to Maura's chest. "An' what happened next?"

"They wrapped you up in a blanket like you are now and they let me hold you just like this, but all I could think about was that something was wrong."

"With me?" Alexa yawned halfway through the question and struggled to keep her head up.

"No, sweetheart." Maura kissed her forehead, feeling the same wave of relief she had that night. "You were fine; it was your Mama they were worried about. She fought so hard for you that something had gone wrong inside her and all the doctors were working to save her. You were being so good and quiet by then that they forgot I was still in the room so I could hear everything."

She had heard and understood every word from_obstetrical hemorrhage_and _emergency transfusion_ to _hypothermia_ and _uterine artery ligation_, but none of them registered, not even in her Google brain. All she could think was that Jane, _her_ Jane, was dying and that she was a doctor, but she couldn't help—she would only be of any use once Jane was dead, but if she lost Jane then...then she would be dead herself.

"Mommy?"

Maura quickly pulled herself back, smiling down at Alexa. "I was so worried," she continued, "but there was nothing I could do. I started to cry because I didn't know what I would do without your Mama, and I made a promise that I would do anything, anything at all, I would even trade places with your Mama so she could stay with you instead because she would be the best Mama in the world for you, so much better than me. My eyes were closed when I thought that and as soon as I finished, do you know what happened?"

Alexa shook her head, struggling to hold her eyes open.

"That was the moment I heard the doctors say that your Mama was going to be OK. I stood up to go see her, but that's when I felt it—just a tiny little tug on the end of my hair. I looked down and I had almost forgotten that I was holding you because I was so worried. I hadn't even gotten a good look at you yet and I didn't realize just how much you looked like your Mama. You were looking up at me and you had your tiny little hand wrapped in my hair and you kept pulling on it, like you were trying to get my attention. You were saying, 'Wake up, Mommy, wake up—look at me.'"

Maura reached down and looped a strand of her daughter's thick dark hair around her finger, testing the curl and giving it one gentle tug. "That was when I looked into your eyes for the first time, Alexandra Rizzoli-Isles, and I knew that no matter what happened I would love you forever."

She felt Jane's hand brush her shoulder, and as Maura looked up she saw her face whirling with emotion and a dozen questions, all of which could wait. _You're a good mother_, Jane mouthed, and Maura smiled back quietly as if to say _Because you show me how_.

Maura shifted to let Jane draw closer as Alexa's eyes drooped one last time and she let out one last sleepy whimper as they were both folded into Jane's arms. She felt Jane kissing the tops of their heads and murmuring over them as Alexa fell asleep, peacefully cradled between them. Without words, Jane somehow asked if she was all right and Maura nodded against her shoulder. For tonight she needed nothing more than what she had—her family, her wife and daughter—and tomorrow would be soon enough to find out what happened next.


End file.
